If all the talk of maple syrup season has you looking to get your pancake fix this weekend, you’re in luck.
The Wellington County Farm and Home Safety Association is hosting a free pancake breakfast this Saturday at the Alma Community Centre.
In addition to the breakfast, with real maple syrup to boot, the association is hoping to inform local families about safety around the home and farm.
“This is the third year for our pancake breakfast. We always do a farm safety day and we have done it for eons, like years and years and years, but we decided that we needed to do something during the winter months to create awareness to farm families and this way you get the community out – everybody likes a free breakfast,” said Sharon Grose, a volunteer on the committee.
Safety on the farm is of the utmost importance, however it is often not openly discussed, especially around youth. Providing an open platform such as this to not only helps to teach proper safety habits, but also gives young people the opportunity to be aware of such practices.
“You don’t want someone to get hurt, so the big thing about farm safety is you hear about the near-misses – what makes the paper is the accidents, but there are lots of near-misses and when kids get together they start sharing stories. So what we try and do is have days like this,” she said.
A unique way to engage children in safety is through character association. Electrical Larry will be there to discuss electrical safety and Safety Sam will be around to discuss rules, for instance.
“He talks about electrical safety, but he makes it a game so the kids get engaged and then they learn something and they go back and talk to their families,” she said.
In addition to friendly characters, children will get a passport upon arrival to be stamped at each booth they attend – at the end, they will be entered into a draw to receive some neat door prizes.
While there are many participation driven incentives for children, the day is really geared towards informing the entire family, with plenty of of useful information for adults.
The event will have a variety of booths discussing different safety issues, from ATVs, grain bins, chemicals, electricity, fire, bicycles, and more run by community volunteers.
“We have the fire department coming, ATV safety is going to be run by the OPP – they are going to be talking about where you can actually ride. In different counties you can ride on roads and not on roads and the needs for helmets, “ she said. “Basic safety grain bin safety, it’s not a place you should play and when grain moves it covers you very quickly. Bike safety, we want kids wearing helmets and we talk about safety, traveling on the correct side of the road.”
“We have someone coming in talking about safe handling of guns and stories and things like that. PTO safety, sometimes people take off the PTO safety guards when they are working on their tractors and they forget to put them back on and we want to review with people that it is important that they are in place.”
In addition to anyone interested in attending, the association is still looking for volunteers to assist with the pancake breakfast. A great way for high school students to receive volunteer hours, she adds.
The free pancake breakfast and Farm Safety Talk will be happening this Saturday (March 3), 9-11:30 a.m. at the Alma Community Centre.
